The 100 Things List

I don’t know what about this article got me to whip out a notebook and start jotting down all my dreams, but it did and I’m hoping it gets you to do the same :)

It’s titled “How To Invest In Yourself ” and was written by a dude named Jon Westenberg who I now really REALLY want to share a beer with. In a nutshell, Jon gives you a framework on how exactly to accomplish all those goals that seem so illusive to us for one reason or another. A bucket list of sorts, only with the game plan behind it so you actually MAKE PROGRESS with your list.

And it’s literally only 4 seemingly simple steps:

Write a list of 100 things

Create a skill chart

Take immediate action

Schedule how you’re going to spend your time to make it all happen

We’re only gonna focus on the first part today since it’s the phase I’m currently in myself (and let’s be honest, it’s the most fun one!), but I hope you take a few minutes afterwards to read the entire article in full so we can ride the journey together :)

But I gotta tell you – coming up with 100 things you desire is a LOT harder than it looks! And really sends you down a mental bender with every item you jot down.

Which is good.

The point isn’t to just dump everything out and start checking them off – it’s to figure out what you actually WANT out of this life and what you’re willing to fight for. Is it more money? Success? Love? Adventure? Something else entirely? What do you always wish you could do/get/go?

It’s about digging deep and really figuring out what we want instead of letting the world dictate it for us while stuck on auto-pilot. Jon says this process takes about two weeks of constant tweaking, reflecting, and literally carrying the list around with you every day until you’re finally happy with it.

And I believe it. It’s only been a few days since I started my own list and I’m only at #26!

Here’s what it looks like so far:

(The covered areas are names of people/places in my life – with the 2nd two spots being my kids :))

If you can read my chicken scratch up there, you’ll see a mixture of goals on it: small ones (leave a $100 tip for coffee), large ones (build a home from scratch!), easy ones (using cash only for a month?), fun ones (hopping on the next random flight out!), silly ones (visit Downton Abbey), and more longer-term goals that need much more attention than the rest (reaching financial independence).

A few of these are somewhat new over the past couple of years, but a majority have been on my mental list for a decade or two and have just never been prioritized enough to get to. Which is why I like this article so much – it forces you to stop and figure out not only *what* you want to work towards for real this time, but *how* you’re going to make it a reality! Even the wildest dreams of ours is do-able if you have your entire life to work towards them, right??

Something else this gets you to do is *appreciate* what you already have too. Sure you can always have more awesomeness in life, but the fact it took me 2 hours to just come up with these 26 items means I’ve already got a LOT of what I truly want already! The next 74 items or so (or hell, even 3/4ths of these up top) are all just gravy if I end up pulling them off in the end. As cliche as it is, I’d die a happy man if my time here comes to an end anytime soon. And most importantly, as a father.

Which leads to the third reason to start tracking your dreams better: You’re reminded of all the accomplishments you’ve already made! When I was stuck around the 9 or 10 mark I started going through old journals and blog posts here to see what I’ve listed out in the past (check out this one from 2010!), and realized that many of them I’ve since accomplished. Like say, having kids, becoming a full-time blogger, learning how to juggle, finally launching our podcast, and one of my personal favorites – growing a killer beard! *Tips hat*

So I started recording those down too, just to make myself feel better :)

You’ll also see a “Maybes” list there as well… These are things I’m not quite sure are worthy of being on the list yet, but intrigue me enough to think about adding later. Like learning how to meditate. I feel like everyone who does it SWEARS by it and are obsessed with how much stress it helps cut, so perhaps it’s worth giving an actual shot for once instead of lame-o attempts whenever I’ve randomly sat still for like 2.3 seconds trying to master it? (And totally failing?)

Again though, all part of the process of whittling down your list so you can start building up the plan around it. Which is really the key takeaway to all this. Not only to figure out what’s truly worthy of your time in your life right now, but to then start working on things bit by bit as the days go on. So even when we don’t cross any of the goals off the list one year, at least we’ve got a handful of them humming in the background as we’re inching closer!

I liked what Jon said towards the end of the post ;)

When you want to accomplish anything, the best way to do it is to stop dreaming. To focus and treat it like a project you’re being paid to do. A project that your job depends on. A project for the biggest a**hole you’ll ever work for — yourself.

Everyone dreams, but those who take action gets the gold. And why not prioritize ourselves more than we tend to do? Who else is going to do it for us?

So if you like this sorta stuff, your mission this week is to *start your own* 100 Things List and see how it goes throughout the week. Add stuff to it, delete stuff, sleep on them, ask your best friends/boyfriends/dogs if you’re missing anything, think about what’s truly worthy to be on there, and then once you’re comfortable with ’em move right away to steps #2 through #4.

You can check out the article again here – a must read!

Then make sure to keep us updated over time :) The list is really only for you, but nothing wrong with a little accountability, right? Tell us some of your dreams so we can ride along and encourage you!

I think the biggest game changer for me this time around will be keeping this list in my pockets once completed*. This same dude does exactly that himself and says it’s a constant reminder of what he wants out of life. Not a bad way to stay motivated, eh?

————*Your list will never be truly complete, of course, since you’ll always be swapping in new items and getting rid of old ones, but keeping it updated and in your day-to-day activities can only give you a better shot at accomplishing them. So I do hope you join me!

Jay loves talking about money, collecting coins, blasting hip-hop, and hanging out with his three beautiful boys. You can check out all of his online projects at jmoney.biz. Thanks for reading the blog!

I love that giving away 1 million dollars comes before having 1 million in net worth. That is most admirable. As is visiting Downton Abbey!
Me, I’d love to do number 7 – just show up at the airport and buy a ticket anywhere. This is such a great idea, especially for a list addict like myself!

You’d probably be flagged by every government agency and end up missing your flight as you are questioned in a small room by some dude in a black suit while trying to explain that it was a life long dream and you aren’t up to anything dodgy.

Nah, I’ve been stopped many a times based on my look and it’s never that bad.. Even if it were, it would still make for a good story :) (And it’s not like I’d be in a rush to get out if i don’t even know where I’m going or how long it would take me to get back, haha… It would just change the exact location I’m off too since I’d have to then ask again for the next flight out!)

It’s a lot harder than it looks for sure! But even if you stopped at 25 or 50 it would still be good to know what you truly want or not and then use it as a constant reminder of what you’re fighting for in life vs all the nonsense we typically end up chasing – hah.

I also haven’t been successful at meditation, but I love that as an idea for this list. This is definitely food for thought. There’s a stat out there somewhere that says writing and/or visualizing our goals helps us reach them much faster. Another challenge I’ve read about in the past is the 100 Items Challenge. It’s a minimalist challenge, and the goal is to get down to owning only 100 things. I wonder if we could marry the two lists?????? #mindblown

It really does take time to make these lists, doesn’t it? I’ve been working on mine sporadically and I only have about 35 items so far. I should probably print it out and carry it around so I can add to it a little every day; that’s a good suggestion. But I’m happy to say that two of them I’m actively working on every day:
– learn Spanish
– learn HTML and CSS
Hopefully I can keep it up! :)

This is awesome! I started doing a version of this myself at the beginning of the year but it only had 24 things on the list. I love how he organized this. It is amazing what happens when you concentrate on stuff and “put it out into the universe”…things happen, things get done, you can cross things off the list!

I knew I had just read a similar idea–it was from Sarah who commented above. Anyway, I think it’s a great idea to make the list and then narrow down & get to work. I’d have a hard time coming up with 100 things, but as you said, I guess that’s good in a way! And it’s also good to dream.

I appreciate that your “list sample” includes helping others so much! And I love looking at old journal entries to see how goals or dreams pan out. It’s hard to notice that in the midst of it happening sometimes.

Great reminder J. I love this as an idea to prioritize what you really want out of your life instead of just following the crowd. I can tell that getting to 100 things is going to be hard but I’m willing to give it a shot.

Love the idea of keeping the list with you. That’s really powerful. I also like how you wrote down your accomplishments. That reminds me of Maggie’s Fill-the-Bucket-List series at Northern Expenditure: http://northernexpenditure.com/the-fill-the-bucket-list/. It’s important to remember where you’re going but also what you’ve already done. Now…off to brainstorm a list!

Dayzeroproject.com is a great website where you can do exactly this, with a 1000 day deadline. I love that you can choose to share your own lists, and be inspired by others. It’s amazing to me that some things that I take for granted as part of my every day are on the “some day” wish list of others, and vice versa!

Dude, go to Berkshire! Buffett and Munger are old! I’m sure you know that this year, they will stream it, but that just isn’t the same. I’ll even buy you a beer. Wait, 2 beers. Good ones too, not PBR. Unless you still have that massive beard, then maybe PBR would fit. I won’t tell you what to drink, but PBR is nasty. I hope that “Drink a PBR” isn’t on your list though. If it is, cross it out and concentrate on the other 99. I’m way off topic now.

I’ll hook you up with a ticket whenever you need one. This is going to be a fun year to attend! The Penny Planters, Even Steven, Income Surfer and some other cool bloggers are showing up for the party.

And if that isn’t enough, Buffett invited us back to his place for a BBQ/kegger (not PBR) after the meeting. Just kidding, I totally made that last part up; it will not be PBR.

That’s awesome! I like what you said about it being hard to come up with some things because you already have so much! I think it would be fun to live in a tiny house/RV for a year. I’d say RV maybe over tiny house so I could travel the country, and maybe make a documentary film at the same time. Anyhoo…I will have to read the article!

I’m 86 years old and I’ll bet my current to-do list has nearly 100 items on it. But they are all sitting-down-in-front-of-the-computer items for my various genealogy studies. At age 73 I was motivated to learn html so I could create my own website for genealogy. Took a little while and I can still think of ways to improve it, but it has been a joy in my ‘old age’ and has opened up conversations with so many folks. I am so grateful for this activity that keeps my mind active even when the old bod doesn’t want to go so fast any more. Now I’d like to learn how to have a blog (even if nobody reads it). And I would like to learn wiki – because I think it would make that to-do list easier to follow. It’s really a LONG list!

And you just gave me a new item to add on my list as I totally forgot I wanted to start documenting our family’s genealogy! Just popped over to your site – such a wealth of info on your family, love it! Happy 11th website-o-versary :)

I have a big bucket list, but I’m just not making much progress on them. Maybe one or two items at the most every year. I’m sure I can come up with 100 things, but it will take some time. Life is just too busy for most people to sit down and think about this. Keeping the list in your pocket sounds good in theory…

Not sure I could do a list of 100 goals. When I was in high school, I made a list of 10 things I wanted to do before I die. It wasn’t called a bucket list back then – I was just bored at school and me and my friends decided to make a list of stuff we wanted to do before we died. 15 years later and I’ve only gotten 1 of the 10 things done – Attend a NASCAR Race (went to the Daytona 500 in 2014). I still need to go skydiving, go water skiing, go snow skiing, go backpacking for a week, attend a Minnesota Vikings football game (I’ve been to a preseason game but that doesn’t count), attend the winter Olympics, attend the summer Olympics, go scuba diving and learn to speak Spanish. Maybe I will add to my list and make it 100 because there are lots of other things I’d like to do such as ride in a hot air balloon, go parasailing, walk on top of the Great Wall of China, visit Rome, see the Eiffel Towel, see the ball drop in Times Square on my birthday (I was a New Year’s baby), hike the entire Appalachian Trail, visit all 50 states in the US, drive to the end of the most dangerous road in America (dirt road in Alaska – goes over many remote mountain ranges and ends at the Arctic Ocean), take a cruise through the Panama Canal, get a butterfly tattoo, learn to play Stairway to Heaven on guitar (need to learn how to play a guitar first), attend the Glastonbury Music Festival in the UK and more. I could easily come up with 100 things – getting them all done, on the other hand, will be difficult.

The plus side is that most of them are fairly simple to accomplish! Just takes $$ and scheduling them :) Unlike the guitar and Spanish that require much more work, haha… though still very much doable.You could totally cross a lot of these off if they’re truly important to you (maybe you haven’t worked on them because they’re just “kinda wants” vs “REALLY wants”?)

When I was in college (around 2002), I worked with a guy from England. He went home over Christmas break. When he tried to come back, he didn’t have a specific type of stamp he needed, so they cuffed him, walked him through the airport, stuck him on a plane and sent him back home. I’m not sure I’d be up for that adventure.

It def. gets more wonky going international with that type of stuff (though as a former ticket agent for an airline that’s the job of the person checking you in to catch first! I’m sure they got in trouble for that!) but I’d probably stick to the national flights. At least for the first shot at it. Maybe international comes next when you really want to up your game ;)

I think that’s a lot harder to do :) I’m gonna focus on micro-amounts that all add up to $1 MIL over time. And dish out to multiple places/people/families vs a single charity. But mainly because I don’t have one I’m super attached to.

I just looked into it: looks like a shareholder can get 4 tickets. Not sure if we have to buy them… but I’ll find out! If you’re serious, and we can make it this year, you can have one of mine. I just asked PiC if he wants to go to Omaha this year but it looks like flights from SF to Omaha are $500 RT – I’m gonna need some miles to pay for this or something :D

100 things, eh? I don’t think I could come up with that. Maybe I’m just too freaked out by current finances to focus on the big picture. I’m not sure if listing a lot of things I can’t do just yet would motivate or stress me.

You could put easier – free – stuff on the list though? Doesn’t have to be all crazy or gigantic or anything. In fact, the 70+ I have left will all probably be smaller/easier to do and costing much less money.

Nice post! I saw someone mentioned the dayzeroproject earlier in the comments. Basically it is a list of 101 things to do in 1001 days, or just under 3 years. Not only do you set goals, but there is a deadline attached to them. Creating the list is the easier part, following through (especially if your lazy or get distracted easy) is the harder part. I found that the deadline helps me accomplish my goals instead of dreaming about my goals.

I love this! I’m definitely going to do this. I haven’t even read Jon’s post yet, but I feel like it could really help motivate me to get some stuff done that I’ve been procrastinating on. Thanks J. Money!

1 – this will take me awhile, wants for others or wants for myself? It becomes a reflection on selflessness
2 – love that it took you forever to reach 26 items
3 – appreciate the theme as seen elsewhere, its all about actually just going for it
4 – the best part of a list would be saving it & reviewing the list like you did after a few yrs

Yup! And can be big and small things too, whether for yourself or for others. Just a good habit to get into and review/work towards over time… Doesn’t have to be rushed, I think what’s most important is just always being cognizant of what you actually *want* in life. And then hopefully working towards ’em as you’re able.

Haha yeah! It’s the only way I can try to write clearer, and even then – as you see – it’s still pretty messy! :)

The juggling thing was actually pretty random because I just gave it a shot for like 5-10 mins every morning while watching my babies roll around the ground, and then one day I woke up – prob 2 months later – and I was juggling! I could only get to three items, but now I’m pretty good at it anytime I try again. Power of small action items building up right there :) And I was just using baby toys! Haha…

For Meditation, Read this book (for free from the library, of course):
Conquest of Mind by Eknath Easwaran
I’m not one to push books or products, but this book changed my life. I started meditating in 2011 using his guidelines, but eventually my meditation morphed into a time of prayer and self-reflection. The benefits of meditation started instantly…I lost excess pounds, became more productive, more confident, happier, more patient…it was awesome! The hardest part was getting up early to dedicate the time, but you’ve already mastered that!

I’ve been out of practice since the arrival of our 3rd little one (I’m sure you know they don’t always sleep at night when they first arrive). But I will be back at it soon.

Wonderful! I’ll actually check that out because you’re right – I already carved the time to spend on this stuff (only mastered AFTER the babies started sleeping through the night, off course ;)) so it’s a perfect time to test stuff out.. Hadn’t even considered that for some reason – thx man.

One large life accomplishment I completed not that long ago was serving in the Peace Corps, where I lived in a small, thatched roof hut for a little over two years! I was in a rural village in southern Africa, and it was a huge learning experience for me. I constantly reflected on my ‘wants’ versus ‘needs,’ as well as how different that looked in my village versus the life I had enjoyed in the United States. I didn’t have many belongings and when I signed up, I basically said, “send me anywhere!” Haha, anyway, your post made me reflect on this and how I evaluate my personal and financial priorities. Haha, so in summary, ever thought about joining the Peace Corps, J. Money?

Oh wowwww that is impressive! I have considered it a tiny bit before when my brother was trying to apply for it (he wasn’t accepted for some reason?), but with wee little kids now I don’t think I would :( At least until they’re older and/or I could take them and my wife? If she’d be up for it too and whole families can be sent places? I don’t know what would happen to my online projects if there’s no internet – hah – but I could see us doing stuff like that once I move on or become financially free/etc… I can only imagine how different you are now having gone through that experience! Very admirable.

This is an amazing idea – brilliant in its simplicity. I’m hugely into lists so this is going to be fun. I think it also would give you, once you finished the list, an interesting insight into your own personality. I mean, we know if we’re sarcastic, type A, extroverted, nerdy etc…..but type of list is an in-depth selfie….without the stick.

This is great! I’ve started by listing 17 items immediately. I think the smaller goals might not jump to mind so quickly. As I would imagine would be true for many, mine thus far fall into a few categories; financial goals (pay off mortgage before xx/xx/xxxx), travel (plan a trip with best friend), self-improvement (study languages). I think it will be fun to give some thought to the more one-off types of things (like your “take the first flight out” goal).

I also like the idea of jotting down some of those things already accomplished. It’s good to take stock and appreciate the opportunities you have taken.

I read the article last week when I saw it on rockstarfinance. I’ve been thinking about what I’d want to put on my list ever since. Haven’t gotten to the point of writing any of it down yet, tho.
I didn’t know you were interested in meditation, though I was thinking it sounded like something you’d like since you’ve been talking about the Ben Franklin mornings. I recently read a book that really got me interested in it, and I think you might really like it. It’s called “10% Happier” by Dan Harris.

This is an interesting list and it reminds me of one that I had created a few years back (in my 20-s with no financial awareness per se). I am somehow unable to locate it but 2 of the things which stood out were:
1. A diamond ring for myself when I started earning – I made it happen about 6 years back, an year after I started earning.
2. A big beautiful book rack full of the best books ever – I have a small book rack now but sadly not the will to spend on books that I may or may not read multiple times.
Most of my other goals on the bucket list were travel and adventure oriented.
You are right about how the pointers on it keep evolving and this post has inspired me to start a new list with all the travel, financial, career and relationship goals that I might find relevant now.

I made a 101 in 1001 list, which is *kind of* similar, in that you set up 101 goals/dreams for yourself that you want to accomplish over the next 1,001 days (which is about 2.75 years). What I like about it is that it gives a deadline, which my personality type totally needs :)

To get to 101 things, I found it was easiest for me to set up categories (books, finances, family life, travel, etc.), and then I brainstormed several ideas under each. Some things were small and easily accomplished (open up savings accounts for the kids), and others are huge and taking months and months (get to 100% fluency in French on Duolingo).

I love reading other people’s dream lists, so make sure you post the whole list when you have it!

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I, J. Money, only claim the thoughts from my head. I am not a banker, CPA, money manager or anything else of that sort. Please seek a professional for any "real" advice. More info: privacy & disclosure page